Checking for consistency between a design and its implementation is usually done manually. It is crucial to check that the diagrams, especially class diagrams, developed at the design level are consistent with the system as developed at the implementation level. Chavez et al. present an approach to check consistency automatically between UML class diagrams at the design level and their Java implementation.

The approach starts by formalizing the rules for the consistency check. The set of formal rules for functions is associated with class diagrams. Then, the formal rules are used for class name, attributes, operations, associations, and generalizations. Finally, the operational semantics approach is adopted in order to check the consistency between the class diagrams and its Java implementation.

The authors then propose the new algorithm, conformance checking between UML and Java (CCUJ), based on the formalization rules used in defining class diagrams. They define two methods of conformance based on class conformance and implementation conformance. The conformance of the consistency check is then tested based on the correctness of the algorithm using formal verification. The algorithm uses the stack algorithm with backtracking steps.

The authors successfully conducted the experiment to evaluate CCUJ in terms of its effectiveness and efficiency. The evaluation was performed to show that the well-formedness rules in the UML specification are carried out in the approach. Readers can use CCUJ as a tool for a theorem prover.